Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203-1714

A -- SMALL UNIT OPERATIONS ROBOTICS FOR URBAN TERRAIN SOL BAA 97-20 DUE 042297 POC Col James Wojtasek, DARPA/TTO, FAX (703) 696-2204 WEB: DARPA Home Page, http://www.darpa.mil. E-MAIL: BAA97-20@DARPA.mil, BAA97-20@DARPA.mil. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking proposals to develop concepts for, and implementation of, advanced technologies for Urban Robotics that support the DARPA Small Unit Operations (SUO) program. Offerors can find information about the SUO program at the DARPA web site: http://www.DARPA.mil. These technologies will enable a robot to gather and disseminate sensed information in potentially hostile urban environments. Priority will be on technologies that demonstrate unique solutions to the maneuverability and human/robot interface challenges inherent to robotic deployment in urban terrain. PROGRAM SCOPE: This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) addresses technologies required for robots to rapidly maneuver through urban environments, inside buildings, and through tunnels providing warfighters with detailed information and situation awareness. This technology is intended to enhance survivability by enabling warfighters to look around corners and into rooms and locate enemy forces while minimizing immediate danger to friendly personnel. DARPA's intent is to focus on technology gaps that are not currently being developed under existing military initiatives. DARPA seeks innovative approaches to two interrelated tasks: Task 1. Initial Design: The purpose of this task is to develop innovative concepts for urban robots, evaluate them, and to perform an initial design. Task 2. System Development and Demonstration: The purpose of this task is to design, fabricate, assemble, operate, and demonstrate a mobile robotic system for urban environments. DARPA has budgeted over $6 million in FY97-FY99 funds for these two tasks. Multiple awards during the third quarter of FY97 are anticipated. Each offeror must submit a proposal which addresses both tasks. Teaming and cost sharing is encouraged in all tasks. All offerors are required to segment and cost proposals as follows: a six-month effort for Task 1, expected not to exceed $400K per award, followed by one or more options for Task 2, expected not to exceed $4 million. The total effort for tasks 1 and 2 including options should not exceed 24 months. For costing purposes, offerors may assume a Task 1 start date of July 1, 1997, and a Task 2 start date of January 1, 1998. All awards under this BAA will contain a requirement for a design review six months after award which may result in contract modifications. The Government requires broad dissemination of the progress and results of the robotic technology development, therefore, offerors are notified that all awards resulting from BAA 97-20 will contain the requirement to participate in periodic SUO open reviews. TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Six technology areas are of particular interest to DARPA, listed in descending order of relative importance: (1) Locomotion technology that will enable rapid robot movement (>1m/second) over uneven terrain, on stairs, and in tunnels, (2) Non-distracting operator interface that enables control of the robot while allowing the operator to maintain personal situation awareness, (3) Ability to identify potential hazards or obstacles that hinder mobility, and to create an accurate representation of the environment, (4) Guidance and control technology that permits rapid path planning and path following, (5) Innovative methods of locating and identifying people and the ability to disseminate such information to others, and (6) Task-level planning technology that engages the robot automatically for certain low-level scenarios, thereby minimizing operator burden. AWARD CONSIDERATIONS: The selection of one or more sources for contract award will be based on a scientific review of proposals submitted in response to this BAA. Selection of proposals for award will be based on the potential benefits to the Government weighed against the cost of the proposals, in view of the availability of funds. Proposals will be individually evaluated solely on their own merit based on the following evaluation criteria, listed in descending order of importance: (1) Potential contribution/relevance to the overall DARPA SUO program, (2) Quality and technical merit of the proposed program, (3) The degree to which technical data and/or computer software developed under the proposed contract are to be delivered to DARPA with unrestricted rights, (4) The offeror's ability to implement the proposed approach as demonstrated by specific accomplishments in the technical field to be studied, by availability of qualified personnel, and by appropriate facilities, (5) Proposed cost and cost realism. Note: Cost realism will be used only as an evaluation criterion in proposals which have significantly under or over estimated the cost to complete their effort. All awards made in response to this BAA will be subject to availability of Government funds. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: Offerors are invited to submit six (6) copies of a preproposal which must be received by 4:00 p.m. EST, March 14, 1997, at the DARPA address listed below. DARPA will review preproposals and recommend to those offerors with promising pre-proposals that they submit full technical and cost proposals. This initial screening of preproposals will minimize unnecessary effort and expense in proposal preparation and review. Full proposals must be received at DARPA by 4:00 p.m. EST, APRIL 22, 1997, to ensure consideration for FY97 funding. DARPA anticipates that initial contractor selections will be made during the third quarter of Fiscal Year 1997. However, proposals submitted up to nine months after initial publication, may be considered for award if funding is available. Acknowledgment of receipt of preproposals or full proposals will not be made and submissions will not be returned. Proposals submitted by fax or electronic mail will not be considered or evaluated. Offerors are required to obtain Proposer Information Pamphlet, BAA 97-20, which provides further information on preproposal and proposal format, page count, evaluation and funding processes, technical scope, and other useful information. Potential offerors can obtain the PIP from the administrative addresses listed below. GENERAL INFORMATION: It is the policy of DARPA to treat all proposals as proprietary information and to disclose the contents only for the purposes of evaluation. The Government intends to use selected technical experts from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to provide advice on specific technical areas as necessary. SAIC will not be permitted to bid on this BAA and is restricted by its contract from disclosing any submitted information or using it for purposes other than performing the limited purpose of technical assessment stated above. Nondisclosure notices notwithstanding, proposals will be handled for administrative purposes by SAIC. Technical experts will assist DARPA in reviewing proposals, and provide technical advice to DARPA. Selections under this BAA will be made only by Government evaluators. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals, however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of research in the development and demonstration of urban robotics technology for small unit operations. The Government reserves the right to select for award any, all, part, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. This CBD notice, in conjunction with the pamphlet BAA 97-20, Proposer's Information Pamphlet, constitutes the BAA as contemplated by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2). A formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement will not be issued and requests for same will be disregarded. Awards are subject to the provisions of the FAR Subpart 9.5, Organizational Conflict of Interest. All offerors and proposed subcontractors must affirmatively state whether they are supporting any DARPA technical office(s) through an active contract or subcontract. All affirmations must state which office(s) the offeror supports, and identify the prime contract number. Affirmation should be furnished at the time of proposal submission. All facts relevant to the existence or potential existence of organizational conflicts of interest, as that term is defined in the FAR 9.501, must be disclosed. The disclosure shall include a description of the action the offeror has taken, or proposes to take to avoid, neutralize or mitigate such conflict. This BAA is an expression of interest only and does not commit the Government to pay any proposal preparation costs. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION: All requests for the PIP, administrative correspondence, or questions on this BAA should be directed to one of the administrative addresses below. DARPA prefers e-mail or fax. Telephone inquiries are strongly discouraged. The administrative addresses for this BAA are: Electronic Mail: BAA97-20@DARPA.mil, FAX: SAIC: (703) 841-4759 (Addressed to: DARPA/TTO, BAA97-20, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714). The PIP may also be obtained by accessing the World Wide Web at URL address (http://www.darpa.mil) and downloading the information for storage and/or printing. (0038)

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